


A Returned Heart

by HookedonCS



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Fluff, after some angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-04
Updated: 2014-12-04
Packaged: 2018-02-28 03:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2716799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HookedonCS/pseuds/HookedonCS





	A Returned Heart

She had seen her fair share of hearts being held in the palms of hands over a short period of time. In delicate hands that understood the fragileness of the gift being kept safe under a watchful eye. She had seen hearts in heavy-handed palms on the verge of crushing it as if that life was as insignificant as a withered and dead flower. There had been dark hearts- filled with hate, greed, mistrust. There had been hearts as pure as the souls that accompanied them. But somehow…

There was something different about the heart she held close to her own beating chest. There was a nervousness that tingled throughout her body.

His eyes held hers. Was he nervous as well?

Emma licked at her lips. Slowly, and so very carefully, she carried his heart closer to its home.

“I…” There was a pause. A bit of consternation and confusion about her task. “I… don’t know… if this is going to hurt.”

Killian’s shrug consisted of a barely there lift of a shoulder. “No more than it did being taken out. When I believed it was never to be returned.” His chin pointed downward, his gaze narrowing on hers.

“Are you sure…” 

“I want you to, Emma,” he whispered. “I need you to.”

Because it had been far too long that he had been without his heart.

Emma nodded stiffly. Her hands tightened protectively around the red beating and glowing heart.

Her pause lingered as the thought of literally holding his heart in her hands. She had felt a difference from him in all that time. She hadn’t known why. But she had picked up on it. And finding out the reason for the change- as miniscule as it was- had infuriated her beyond words. 

It was an issue best left in the past. It was behind them. Well, almost.

“Emma?”

She turned her attention from her hands to look at him again. That inquisitive look still there.

She offered the tiniest of smiles. And then… 

It took her complete concentration. It took her total focus, on him, to…

“You won’t hurt me,” Killian whispered, reading her thoughts and knowing her fears.

She blinked up at him. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

It was a magical push- a thrust through cloth, skin, muscle.

She expected a groan of pain, some kind of hurt. But there was a breath of relief that escaped his lips.

“Killian?”

“Emma.” 

Her exit from his body was quick and fleeting. The nervousness only grew as she watched the effect of his heart being connected to every part of him again.

“How… does that feel?” Because there was an apparent change- an awareness about him now.

“It feels…” Killian hands moved slowly to cover his chest. “Like I can feel.”

She’d never been without her heart. Not literally. But she could only imagine what it was like.

“Gold will pay for this, Killian.” It was a promise- a vow she meant to keep.

“Oh, that he will, love.”

A common goal…

Emma smiled nervously, reality dawning on her. “I could have lost you.”

He frowned. “I could have lost you.”

And then the closeness wasn’t close enough. Emma moved, her hands fisting at his jacket as she crushed herself into him.

“Losing you isn’t an option, Killian,” she whispered into his neck. “Not now. I… can’t. I can’t… lose you.”

Emma felt the way his fingers tangled in her hair and the feel of his cheek resting on the top of her head.

“Well you haven’t lost me yet.” A gentle rub of hair-roughened cheek to the softness of her hair.

He felt different. He felt real and whole. Emma’s fingers climbed up, pressing against his stomach and up to his chest. And she could feel it. The heart that was just in her hands now beat steadily from behind his chest. And it was real.

She had never felt so vulnerable. Emma was vulnerable in every aspect related to him. It wasn’t always easy to accept that. Not when it could hurt so deeply.

“He pays,” she whispered fiercely.

There was no misunderstanding of her words.

Killian’s hands tightened around her. “He will pay.”

But for now- for just this moment- it was enough to just hold each other. To love one another. And for the first time after such a long time, it was wholeheartedly. 


End file.
